Lost in the Haze: Beijing’s Fight Against Fireworks

Fireworks illuminate the skyline to celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year of Horse on Jan. 30, 2014 in Beijing.

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Beijing’s city government on Friday declared victory over air pollution caused by fireworks and thanked residents for their cooperation amid a nationwide campaign to curb their use on the eve of the Lunar New Year holiday. But even with the smoke largely blown away, it’s not clear whether the campaign against holiday explosives has been as effective, or as necessary, as authorities make it out to be.

The Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center said Friday on its verified feed on Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblogging platform that levels of PM2.5 — tiny particular matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter that is particularly dangerous to human health — were “substantially lower” in the hours leading up to midnight on the eve of the Lunar New Year.

“We are here to thank the city’s residents for their support of Beijing’s Clean Air Act,” the notice said.

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What the notice didn’t mention: Most Beijing residents traditionally set off fireworks just after midnight, and air quality spiked afterward, with Beijing air-monitoring stations recording PM2.5 levels as high as 544 micrograms per cubic meter at 1 a.m.

China’s war against fireworks has intensified over the past few months amid increasing worries about air pollution across the country. The official Xinhua news agency has reported on everything from the cancellation of fireworks displays in Chinese cities to banning their use on high pollution days. Propaganda posters showing teddy bears wearing gas masks while holding strings of firecrackers urge Beijing residents to consider the environmental costs of holiday pyrotechnics.

Fireworks undoubtedly cause spikes in pollution. Xinhua reported that PM2.5 levels rose as high as 1,486 on Lunar New Year eve in 2012, citing an official with the China Meteorological Administration. That’s more than 42 times the limit of 35 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets for an average 24-hour period set.

But for all the haze they produce, fireworks are unlikely to be the persistent cause of bad air quality in China, particularly when compared with coal-fired power plants and vehicle emissions, which together make up almost 40% of Beijing’s PM2.5 emissions. Still, the holiday explosives are an easy target both politically and economically, much like the roadside meat-roasting operations that were singled out as a “very common” source of PM2.5 in Beijing over the summer.

“As soon as the new year arrives, they start talking about fireworks polluting the air. We set them off once a year, and now people are boycotting? Why don’t you boycott more important sources of air pollution,” wrote one skeptical Weibo user. “If Chinese people don’t eat and set off fireworks during the holiday, what’s the point?”

China’s National Meteorological Center on Friday issued a “yellow” smog alert for central and eastern China, warning that visibility in some areas was less than 200 meters because of “weak cold-air activity.” Its four-color alert system consists of blue, yellow, orange and red in order of increasing severity.

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